“If one has to avoid all such influences to be genuinely ‘evangelical,’ then I am not evangelical. If one must be conservative politically, then I, a Green-leaning democratic socialist and registered Democrat, fail the test.”

The cross makes it look sort of like those little cartoon X’s for eyes. Why do you have a dead Jesus fish, trucker hat?

http://stealingcommas.blogspot.com/ chris the cynic

I also feel that the addition of a cross makes it look like a dead cartoon fish, which is annoying because whatever its connotations I actually think the unadorned fish symbol is aesthetically geometrically pleasing.

Worthless Beast

That Easy Button shirt…. I facepalmed. My guy used to work for a Staples. He has one of those stupid things around here somewhere…

I’m also glad that someone decided to warn the gullible people rather than sit back and laugh at them getting sick and dying “because they deserve it for being stupid.” – Been reading too much snark online…

http://somuchshoutingsomuchlaughter.com/ suzannah | the smitten word

thanks so much for sharing my poem, fred.

http://twitter.com/shutsumon Becka Sutton

That article on St Wilgefortis raised my hackles. It probably shouldn’t have done but it did.

Why? Because there’s a massive assumption of sexuality in there.

It’s a pain in the arse how people assume that anyone who doesn’t want to have sex with men must want to have sex with women.

Yes she might have been intersex or had polycystic ovary syndrome (if she even existed) there’s no way to tell at this point.

And yes she might have been a lesbian using a vow of celibacy as an escape route but equally she might have been hetero and have decided to be celibate for religious reasons like the story says or she might have been asexual and using a vow of celibacy as an escape route.

My inclination – if she existed – if that it was PCOS because that would explain the beard and can cause very low sex drive (as distinct from asexuality which is to do with sexual attraction not sex drive).

But why doesn’t the possibility that she was asexual even come up? Why are we being ignored again?

It’s like when Fred made a joke several months ago about how evangelicals assumed the church organist who was in his 40s and unmarried was just waiting for the right woman. (implication *nudge nudge wink wink* he’s gay and they’re in denial). My thought at the time was he could be asexual and it bothered me then but not as much as the automatic assumption of sexuality has come to bother me this last couple of months as I’ve read more and more really dismissive stuff about asexuality).

(For the record I’m asexual which is why this bothers me).

Sorry for the rant.

http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/ Kittredge Cherry

Becka, thank you for raising the possibility that Wilgefortis was asexual. I wrote that profile of Wilgefortis at the Jesus in Love Blog, and based on your comment I revised the text of this post by adding the possibility that Wilgefortis was asexual. There are so many possible explanations for the mysterious bearded woman saint… all of them shedding light on different aspects of human sexuality and gender! I only hope that you will leave comments directly on my blog in the future so I don’t miss hearing your thoughts.

http://twitter.com/shutsumon Becka Sutton

Hiya! I considered commenting on your blog but I thought an angry rant might not be the best way of introducing myself so I commented here where I comment semi-regularly. I’ll try to comment in future.

http://thatbeerguy.blogspot.com Chris Doggett

Funny anecdote about the Jesus hat:

I worked the 2010 Census. My “districts” were all suburban, which wasn’t too bad, but I talked to folks who had to work more rural areas. Turns out, knocking on someone’s door and saying “I’m with the government” isn’t met with much friendliness in some rural areas. (which were colloquially referred to as “shotgun and dog territory”) One field worker said that he discovered wearing the “Jesus Fish” hat meant folks would hear his spiel, look mean, see the hat, and grudgingly give answers without threats or overt hostility.

Tricksterson

I can’t throw any stones at people who wear Jesus fishes or sport them on their car since I’v e worn a t-shirt with a pentagram on it (which led to a young (12ish) girl asking me why I was wearing the “devil star” but she was quite nice and listened well when I explained what it actually meant) and another with a sun cross. Also have a bumper sticker (although not a car) with an alien fish.

The Henson Company, in a Facebook post, says, “The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors.”